CNN interviews Georgia Tech students

Date: Sunday, March 01, 2009 4:45 PM

<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 1983 -- 3/01/2009 >>>>>

Two CNN interviews of a group of Georgia Tech students was eye opening. The
students seem to be quite aware of the dismal job market they will be entering
because they know family members that have job problems.

Christine Liu is a first generation American. Based on her age of about 19,
her parents probably came here with green card visas or by using the new H-1B
program in 1990. Her parents are professionals that are running into career
problems. As Christine Liu describes it, her dad is having trouble keeping his
job because there are so many young people competing for the same jobs. Liu is
seeing age discrimination first hand and it scares her.
Things are so bad that Liu's parents are even considering moving back to China
(it's not clear if she meant China or Taiwan).

LIU: Well, my dad wants to -- well currently like the job market
with my dad, because he's an engineer, it's hard -- it's really
hard to actually stay up because we have, you know, all these
Georgia Tech students who are, you know, new with the -- up
with the new information and stuff like that. They're coming in
and taking the older people's jobs.

Shelby Bernard was foreign born, so based on her age, her parents more than
likely came here with H-1B visas. She isn't very optimistic about her future
career prospects:

"now I'm looking like, maybe I'll have a job if I move back to where
my parents are originally from, you know?

Yeah, we know Shelby, but those other students in the interview don't have the
option of moving back to their home country.

Liu and Bernard are classic examples of this adage:

"Today's immigrant will be tomorrow s victim
-- Richard Tax, American Engineers Association, 1996

The phenomenon that Tax described happens because the H-1Bs that come to the
U.S. are young, cheap, and of course docile because their immigration status
is tied to the visa (i.e. indentured). By the time these immigrants obtain
permanent residency they are a little older and more expensive, and therefore
not as desirable as they were as an H-1B. Eventually they are discarded to the
career junk pile just like any other middle aged American.
Children of immigrants become U.S. citizens and eventually find out that they
have the same disadvantages as any other American. The angst these two young
women are feeling is completely justified but tragically they don't yet
understand the underlying causes.

It's doubtful that Liu and Bernard have ever heard of Richard Tax, and they
probably wouldn't accept such a politically incorrect notion, but as they
graduate and move into the job market they will learn how little value being a
U.S. citizen is. In a subsequent interview, those same students discuss race
relations, which is very illustrative of how much these students need to learn
before they understand why their prospects in the job market seem so grim. One
thing for sure, their indoctrinations in diversity-think were very thourough!

WOODS: All I had seen was the same type of guy, the same type
of people, running everything in the world. And it seems
to me like, OK -- I know it's kind of far-fetched.

HARRIS: White people are running the world?

WOODS: Exactly. White males.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: White males.

WOODS: Old white males.

Here is Liu on diversity etc.

LIU, FRESHMAN, INDUSTRIAL DESIGN: This whole generation has kind of
become more open-minded about everything because everything has just
kind of -- our world has shrunk so much, and so we're forced to
interact with people -- well, not really forced. We are interacting
with people who are going to be gay, who are going to be a different
gender, who are going to be Asian, black, white, you know. Like,
they're going to come from different countries, they're going to
come from different religious backgrounds.

Let's check back with Christine Liu in about 5 to 10 years and see if she
still feels so open-minded to diversity. Underemployment and depressed
salaries have a way of jogging people out of their slumber.

These students are typical in that they have been educated to think the
problems of the world are based on racism. While racism is a big factor,
especially if you want a job with companies like Tata who only hire Brahmin
Indians, the issues these students will be dealing with have much more to do
with globalism, nationalism, and culture identity. Of course today's educators
don't recognize the difference between these fundamental issues and racism; so
it's not surprising their students don't either.

Norm Matloff wrote a newsletter about the same CNN video. You can read it at
Vdare:
http://blog.vdare.com/archives/2009/03/01/dr-norm-matloff-on-h1-b-and-age/

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/us/2009/02/20/class.in.session.cnn.html
Video: "Students worry about economy", 2/20/2009

http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/living/2009/02/27/cis.harris.race.relations.cnn?iref=videosearch
Video: "Honest talk about race", diversity 2/27/2009

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0902/20/cnr.04.html

Aired February 20, 2009 - 12:00 ET

The economic meltdown is causing personal meltdowns for college students
across the country. As part of my "Class in Session" series, I tapped into
some raw emotions from Georgia Tech students.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Hey, everybody. How are you? "Class in Session," Georgia Tech style.

Here we go.

How are you? Lord, have mercy.

Hi. What's your name?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Christine (ph). HARRIS: Let's have at it. All right?

Class is in session.

Are you angry about the circumstances that we're in now? And do you attach
blame to anyone? Raw emotions here.

VERNELL WOODS, FRESHMAN, COMPUTER ENGINEERING: It doesn't just make me angry.
It kind of make me irate, because after seeing so many people...

HARRIS: So you're beyond angry.

WOODS: I am beyond angry simply because, after seeing so many people in my
family, friends, parents of friends, simply struggling, that have been working
for countless numbers of years, simply struggling because of our economy going
oun down. And so often we want to play the blame game, we want to blame it on
this person.

HARRIS: And I'm asking you to do that.

WOODS: And somewhat the way you're asking. But me, I'm not at that point yet.
But not just looking at me, but looking at the generations that are coming
after me, and looking at my little cousins, and the younger people, I don't
care about who caused it.

HARRIS: You want to move forward.

WOODS: I want a fix.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely. Oh, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're all angry.

SHELBY BERNARD, SENIOR, SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & CULTURE: So angry. I'm a first-
generation America. And so we moved here because we felt like this was the
land of opportunity. And if we could make it anywhere, we could make it here.
And now I'm looking like, maybe I'll have a job if I move back to where my
parents are originally from, you know? And that should never be. Somebody --
we immigrated and we feel like we failed or that I might not have the
possibility to succeed? That's heart-breaking, you know?

CHRISTINE LIU, FRESHMAN, INDUSTRIAL DESIGN: I have the same story that she
does. My parents came here and they had, I think together -- I heard this
story like 50 times -- they had about $49 in their pocket together and now
they're both making -- my parents are making around six figures. That's the
American dream, is to come here with $50 -- less than $50 and to suddenly be
making six figures.

HARRIS: You may not do as well as your parents.

LIU: No. And that's the unfortunate thing about it. Like my parents are
honestly considering like thinking about, you know, maybe China's a good
option. Because I'm from -- my parents . . .

HARRIS: Is that really a discussion point in your family?

LIU: Well, my dad wants to -- well currently like the job market with my dad,
because he's an engineer, it's hard -- it's really hard to actually stay up
because we have, you know, all these Georgia Tech students who are, you know,
new with the -- up with the new information and stuff like that.
They're coming in and taking the older people's jobs.

And so my dad doesn't have the opportunity to actually get the job. But he's a
really smart guy and so he's considering, you know, going back to China and
maybe starting up a job there. Which should never be an option.
He moved here in the first place to get the opportunity to raise his daughters
in a good environment, in a good place so that they could have whatever they
wanted. Whatever they dreamt for, they could have it.

HARRIS: This American dream?

LIU: Yes. So, I mean, to see it right now is almost heart- breaking.

HARRIS: That was my next question. How does it make you feel?

LIU: It makes me angry and it makes me a little sad to think about it because
I have -- like my parents wanted so much for me and at time it feels like I
can't deliver it because I'm here for an education. My tuition here is
actually -- with the help -- is more expensive than my sister's was. And my
sister is only four years older than I am.

HARRIS: Is that pressure on you?

LIU: That's a lot of pressure on me, actually. To keep up that level of
perfection that you need to have in order to make it in this country.

NICK WELLKAMP, SENIOR, INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING: Now I'm angry because, you
know, we're talking about -- well, we're talking about billions, maybe
trillions of dollars in bailout fund, but where is that money coming from?
We're mortgage -- they're mortgage -- you know, the current generation is
mortgaging our generation's future. We're going to be the ones who have to pay
for it. Now I'm not mad that we're trying to revitalize our economy.
I'm mad that we have to be doing this to revitalize our economy.

BERNARD: There's no bailout for me if I can't pay my student loans back
because I don't have a job.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, right.

BERNARD: I only need 100 grand.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Oh, that is so much fan. You can hear much more from these bright
future leaders next Friday, class is back in session and these young people
get very frank about race in America. Personal stories you won't want to miss.
Again that's next Friday at 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0902/27/cnr.03.html

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Welcome to my world.

Do you believe that race relations in this country will continue to improve
during the Obama years?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, yes.

HARRIS: Yes?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it spoke wonders for our country that he won by the
margin that he did.

HARRIS: How do you explain that? How do you explain...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know, because...

HARRIS: Forty-odd years ago, we were talking about, can we pass a Civil Rights
Act? How do you explain...

VERNELL WOODS, FRESHMAN, COMPUTER ENGINEERING: My mom went to a segregated
school.

HARRIS: Your mom went to a segregated school? WOODS: I mean, I remember
stories, not just my mom, but my grandmother. I remember sitting -- me hearing
stories of just one generation, two generations away of not even having
something that doesn't seem real to me. It doesn't seem real to not be able to
be at a school and sit next to her. It doesn't seem real to me.

Him being elected president did a lot. But it not only -- it did a lot for me
personally, because when I was younger, my parents always had this thing where
they said, OK, you can be whatever you want to be. You can grow up to be --
you can be president. You can be whatever...

HARRIS: And you didn't really believe it, did you?

WOODS: You never believe. I mean, you have it in the back of your mind, but
it's not realistic.

HARRIS: You figure it capped off, topped off somewhere; right?

WOODS: All I had seen was the same type of guy, the same type of people,
running everything in the world. And it seems to me like, OK -- I know it's
kind of far-fetched.

HARRIS: White people are running the world?

WOODS: Exactly. White males.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: White males.

WOODS: Old white males.

(CROSSTALK)

HARRIS: We're going today straight talk here.

WOODS: I did a lot of mentoring, a lot of middle school kids. And if I would
have asked any of them, can you actually be president, what they wanted to be
was basketball players...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Exactly.

WOODS: ... they wanted to be football players.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Rappers.

WOODS: They wanted to be rappers.

HARRIS: Top engineer didn't factor into the equation? Being the president of
the United States, in a real way, didn't factor into the equation?

WOODS: It wasn't real.

HARRIS: Folks of a certain age continue to say and be struck by the fact that
race doesn't appear to be the hang-up for this generation that it's been for
our generation. Is that true? CHRISTINE LIU, FRESHMAN, INDUSTRIAL
DESIGN: This whole generation has kind of become more open-minded about
everything because everything has just kind of -- our world has shrunk so
much, and so we're forced to interact with people -- well, not really forced.
We are interacting with people who are going to be gay, who are going to be a
different gender, who are going to be Asian, black, white, you know. Like,
they're going to come from different countries, they're going to come from
different religious backgrounds.

NICK WELLKAMP, SENIOR, INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING: We grew up with diversity. I
mean, I went to an integrated public school in Kentucky.

HARRIS: I was wondering when I was going to hear that word, "diversity."

WELLKAMP: Yes. And we see it here at Georgia Tech. I mean, more so than
anywhere else than I've been. You interact with all sorts of different
backgrounds. It brings to you an appreciation. I think part of the problem
with the previous generation, they didn't understand one another. The
different groups didn't understand one another.

HARRIS: What do you mean we didn't understand?

LAURA STILTZ, SENIOR, APPLIED MATHEMATICS: But I don't -- but I don't think
-- for me, it's not my parents' generation, it's my grandparents'
generation. I grew up -- I mean, my grandfather was a racist. There were
plenty of things that we were not allowed to see, like, with him, because
there were African-American in it. And because of my grandfather's attitude,
my mother's attitude was very different.

And she -- both she and my father instilled in me this tolerance. You might
not agree with someone, but you can get along with them and you can work with
them. Although I grew up in an area that might not be considered very diverse,
my mom made a point to make sure that we were friends with everyone.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Whoa, whoa, whoa. Now, how hard was that for her to say?

Hear the rest of that frank discussion. Our racism talk gets even more
revealing next hour. That's noon Eastern, 9:00 Pacific, right here in the
NEWSROOM.

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